Scenario: Homo Novus
2012 *The first high-performance nootropic drug enters human trials. Initial testing reveals that the drug (trade name 'Neurostatin'), grants full access to the brain at any given moment, allowing for total recall and high-level reasoning abilities. The drug moves to stage 2 trails. 2016 *Neurostatin enters the market at $1,000 per pill. The elites are the first to try it; the general public is initially opposed to the concept of brain enhancers. Scientists, researchers, and technicians quickly become the largest consumers of the drug. *A team of mathematics, economics, computer engineering, and sociology students at Harvard and MIT (all on Neurostatin) program a next-generation predictive economic algorithm. Once the program generates over USD $20 million from various stocks, the group drops out and forms Oracle Trading, Inc. *Geneticists at UC Berkeley successfully implant a working artificial pancreas in a gibbon. They apply for human trials one month later. *Fermi Lab petitions for additional funding after a number of their researchers on Neurostatin discover a theoretical way to conclusively prove the existence of the Tachyon. *Kickstarter.com is flooded with requests for funds to buy enough Neurostatin to accomplish various goals. *Members of the defunct Tea Party form a new PAC, The American Purity Movement. The group's only official goal is the criminalization of nootropics. *The European Union outlaws the use of nootropics by a narrow vote, leaving the US, Japan, and Canada as the only countries who permit the sale and use of Neurostatin. 2017 *The US Congress passes the Congressional Sobriety Act, providing for the automatic disqualification of any and all political candidates who test positive for the use of non-essential nootropic drugs. *Oracle Trading, Inc. (OTI) announces Q1 2017 profits at USD $78 billion and confirms that their algorithm is now trading with every available public company. They open a website that allows anyone to leverage funds for investment by the company's near-perfect predictive algorithm, with a 20% fee on all profits. *Fermi Lab's petition is denied and their researchers on Nerostatin are fired after an executive order regulating nootropics is signed by President Romney. *Geneticists at Drexel University on Neurostatin create a genetic modifier in the brains of test rats, making permanent the effects of Neurostatin. Clinical Trials on monkeys are tentatively approved. *Engineers at Tesla Motors perfect a room-temperature superconductor ('ultraconductor') for consumer use. Elon Musk (on Neurostatin himself) announces the creation of a separate battery and power transmission division: Tesla Battery Company. *Researchers at University of Tokyo create a thin-film solar cell capable of harnessing 78% of the sun's rays into usable electricity, the most efficient solar cell yet. *SpaceX, Virgin Galactic (now based in the US), Ad Astra, and Bigelow Aerospace form a spaceflight research and development consortium, Icarus Group. 2018 *Q2 Profits for OTI exceed USD $200 billion, the largest of any company in recorded history (adjusting for inflation). Its clients now include most of the developed world. Their investment website now includes a 'morality wheel' with which users can define what they would rather have their money invested in based on a specific set of principles. Corporate profits drop slightly as per-capita profits rise. *The Drexel gene modifier tests so well in chimps that they petition the FDA for full human trials. They are denied and ordered to shut down. *The US Congress outlaws the use of nootropics in all federal employees and recipients of any federal funds. Users of nootropics are also banned from donating to political campaigns. *Tesla Motors loses their federal funding, but thanks to the development of ultraconductors, they are able to dominate the electric car market by selling high quality, inexpensive vehicles. *Icarus unveils next-generation rocket motors and life support systems that allow SpaceX's Falcon XX to launch at $1000 per pound, the cheapest of any rocket in history. The company sends the first privately-financed, unmanned mission to Mars. 2019 *Japan finally outlaws nootropics. Many of their researchers emigrate to the US or Canada. *Mexico petitions the other NAFTA countries to outlaw Nootropics. *The genetic nootropic from Drexel (trade name 'Drexelin') hits the streets through illegal production in underground labs. *Canada adopts many of the US' anti-nootropic laws. *The SEC orders the end of business for OTI due to their pro-nootropic ad campaigns that violate US law. Before closing, the owners disperse the algorithm on the Internet and deposit most of their funds (over USD $1 trillion) in a number of small offshore and foreign accounts. *Tesla partners with Japanese solar researchers to sell a combination solar panel and charging station for their vehicles. They now control 20% of the American automotive market. *The leadership of the Purity Movement and some of the more radical members of the Republican and Democratic parties meet with members of the Green Party (one of the most radical anti-nootropic groups) to form an alliance for the 2020 elections. 2020 *The Purity Party is formed from the Green Party. They stand against any and all nootropics or human modification efforts. *SpaceX lands a person on the Moon. Bigelow Aerospace partners with them for the first lunar base. *Drexelin has spread to a number of back alley doctors (now more skilled than licensed MDs thanks to the modifier), who begin to create new modifiers and cooperate on the Deep Web. Use is limited to the few customers with the money and desire to obtain the drug. *Tesla announces plans to buy out Procter & Gamble. The SEC begins merger hearings. *The OTI algorithm has spread throughout the internet and given millions the chance to take advantage of the stock market. 2021 *Purity Party candidates take control of the House, Senate, and presidency, and ban nootropics in the US. *The SEC is ordered to cancel the Tesla/P&G merger. *Underground use of Drexelin skyrockets as millions of 'brain junkies' seek a replacement for Neurostatin. *A number of new modifiers for height, sexual organs, strength, etc. begin to come out of the underground genetics market. Communication through the Deep Web is the primary form by which these drugs are marketed around the world. Transgenders flock to back-alley doctors for full hormone swaps. Many members of the 'furry' movement go underground once the proper genetic modifiers are at their disposal. *The Purity Party outlaws all forms of human modification. 2022 *Canada finally outlaws human modification, becoming the last country to do so. *There are believed to be 20,000 modified or augmented humans worldwide. *The Purity Party pushes for a protocol in the UN that would ban all human modifiers and define those that have taken them as non-human. It passes. *Convicted 'Transhumans' or 'non-humans' worldwide are discriminated against. Throughout Asia and Africa, the punishment for being deemed non-human is death. In Europe and South America, Transhumans are either arrested or given special tattoos to identify them. In the US, UK, Canada, and Italy, QR code tattoos are given to all identified Transhumans. *Worldwide, there is no punishment for the murder of Transhumans, unless a firearm is used in a country in which civilian firearm ownership is banned. *Transhumans go underground, many forming communities in sewers under major cities or in delapitated slums. They progressively improve the utilities available to make these 'reservations' more comfortable, but they can rarely leave the relative safety of their own neighborhoods. *Transhumans begin to divide into 'races' or classes, rarely cooperating beyond their own race, out of collective fear for their own lives. 2023 *The UN approves the Beijing Protocols, creating a small reservation for Transhumans in the Sahara Desert, a region completely devoid of life. Two hundred Transhumans are rounded up and sent to the Sahara Reservation, and are expected to die within a matter of weeks. *With superior intelligence and what little they are able to bring with them, Transhumans in the Sahara are able to generate a meager supply of water through condensation farming. Only twenty of the first two hundred die. 2024 *Over five thousand Transhumans have been moved to the Sahara. *Many Transhumans continue to resist and fight for their survival in their home countries. The Transhuman tribes unite under an online parliament enabled by the few wi-max enabled computers they've brought with them to the reservation or underground. *Transhumans in the Sahara begin constructing a complex network of tunnels in the dense clay beneath the desert. US and Russian spy satellites are committed to monitoring the Transhumans. 2025 *The Sahara Transhuman population now exceeds 10,000 and survives off the few plants they are able to cultivate underground from contraband seeds. The Sahara reservation is reported to experience rampant smuggling from neighboring Africans (usually for seeds, medical equipment, and livestock). The UN passes an order to deploy a military blockade to the region, led mainly by America, the UK, and France. *Transhumans are now required to surrender all personal items before entering the Sahara reservation. Many continue to smuggle by ingesting condoms of goods before capture. 2026 *The vast majority of all Transhumans believed to be alive now live in the Sahara, though a few are still captured from time to time. There are now twenty thousand Transhumans living beneath the Sahara reservation. *All surface activity in the reservation ceases on October 14, 2026. Transhumans continue to construct an increasingly elegant and complex network of tunnels beneath the Sahara using whatever tools they have, can make, or smuggled. The Wi-Max network continues to act as their main governing body. *The Purity Party passes more extreme laws limiting technological progress for fear of creating new Transhumans. Human computing technology peaks as leader ban research into quantum and DNA-based computers for fear of creating intelligent machines. 2027 *Transhumans successfully create a simple glass fabricator from their limited resources. *One month later, they use it in combination with their remaining computers to create a Kayser Solar Fabricator. The device allows them to use the sun's rays to make relatively simple objects out of glass using only sand. *The Transhumans progressively perfect their Kayser fabricator to produce increasingly better objects and tools. *Transhuman doctors use their glass instruments to re-establish the use of medicine in the Tunnels. *Transhumans begin using plant waste to create a wide array of useful chemicals. 2028 *There are now 25,000 Transhumans on the reservation. *Transhumans begin to produce cellulose-based plastics. Their glass fabricators can now construct complex mechanical devices. They construct brick and iron forges from local materials, giving them access to stronger building materials. *Transhumans construct their own version of the Groasis water box and begin planting the few trees they've been able to capture on the surface, in an intricate pattern. They also build a network of fertilizer pipes beneath their small tree farm. *The Tunnels now extend a quarter-mile beneath the surface and to the edges of the reservation. 2037 *The reservation population is now 70,000. *Their tree farm has grown into a large oasis, covering much of the reservation. Winds in the area die down thanks to the grove and permit more frequent rainfall and water retention. Their fertilizers allow for much faster and more vibrant growth. *Their tunnel city now extends a mile beneath the surface and has achieved a late Industrial Revolution level of technology. Complex analog devices permit a high standard of living. *Earth's human population is largely unaware of the survival of the Transhumans. The world's leaders continue to observe the unnatural growth of the new oasis as a sign of their survival. Transhumans continue to go to the surface, but are careful not to damage their oasis. *Transhumans begin planting outside the oasis in Western Sahara by tunneling under the military blockade. 2039 *Transhumans reintroduce ultraconductors and transistors into their society, and recreate Japanese solar cells and begin placing a few of them in patches of their territory. *The Transhuman oasis reaches the Atlantic ocean, though it is sparse save for the groves around underground reservoirs. *Transhumans continue to expand tunnels all under the western Sahara without alerting the blockade. 2044 *Transhumans now number over 200,000. *The tunnels have been expanded into a wagon wheel network of maglev rail-lines powered by geothermal and solar sources from the original oasis. Its max depth is four miles. *Transhumans have reached a first world standard of living. *Transhumans rediscover genetic engineering. 2045 *Transhumans engineer new plants to provide for a healthier diet and begin spreading a forest of genetically engineered trees all around the western Sahara. They plant a new reef off its coast to replace many of the extinct species and clean the oceans. *On November 5, a group of Transhumans emerge from the oasis, approach the border guards, and demand an audience with the United Nations. They are ignored. *Transhumans use next-generation communications technology to send a message to the UN, demanding an audience. They are allowed to send three ambassadors to speak for one hour at the UN headquarters in New York. *Transhumans demand that the reservation be lifted and that they be granted all the territory that their forest encompasses. They reveal the existence of their tunnel network and state that they have finally surpassed humans in technology and will be able to defend any attack. Humans assume this to be a bluff and imprison the ambassadors. *The UN concludes that the Transhumans are too great a threat to continue their existence and collectively agree to a bombing campaign of their tunnel network. *NATO bombers and warships are deployed to the Western Sahara and begin their bombing campagin. None of the weapons hit the ground, but are destroyed in mid-air by some kind of anti-munitions device. 2046 *Transhumans breach the surface and begin building their city above-ground for the first time. *All weapons launched against them explode in mid-air. *NATO agrees on an amphibious assault, but their forces are easily repelled by Transhuman-built automated defense systems. *Human leaders agree to a united coalition against the Transhumans and launch a second wave at the city. They are beaten back by a series of laser and kinetic energy weapons that seek out and destroy all air and sea craft. The majority of ground forces are killed by either automated kinetic weapons or Transhuman super-soldiers. *The Transhuman city nears completion and has a population of nearly one million. 2047 *The UN reconvenes and concludes that at their current rate of growth, Transhumans could feasibly become the dominant species on Earth. A nuclear strike is ordered; however, the bomb is blown out of the sky by Transhuman lasers. *Transhumans launch an unmanned non-nuclear strike on all human nuclear facilities, disabling their nuclear capabilities. 2048 *The Transhuman supersoldiers and robotic weapons (which improve by the day) easily defend their city. The Transhuman population votes to go on the attack and drive humans from the Western Sahara. *Despite continued talks with the UN, NATO attacks continue. *By winter, the Transhuman forces have taken most of north Africa, growing in number from genetic vats to suit their needs. Their genetic advancement has led to them to refer to themselves as ''Homo Novus ''— the New Humans. *Homo Novi now number in the tens of millions by recycling the bodies of their fallen enemies into new life. Their force of drone planes have taken over the skies and their cities are spitting out fleets of submarine superships. *Europe is invaded from the Mediterranean by the Homo Novi. Peace is demanded; when the UN refuses, Homo Novus launches kinetic strikes on all human military installations and destroy the majority of their satellite network with ground-based lasers. 2049 *Homo Novi take control of Europe. *They have reached the Technological Singularity, far beyond that of humanity at large. *Homo Novi abandon their bodies in favor of robotic ascension. Their army quickly takes control of Eurasia and Africa. the US and Brazil stand as the last powers willing to resist. *Homo Novi ask for peace one last time. Brazil agrees on its own terms; the US refuses. *Homo Novi stage a massive invasion of America from three sides and conquer the continent in a matter of weeks. Humans now live under the dominion of the Homo Novi, whose numbers exceed a billion conscious minds, including voluntarily augmented human supporters. *Homo Novi declare themselves the new dominant species. Any homo sapiens may ascend to become a New Human; many refuse. *As to prove moral superiority to Homo Sapiens, surviving leadership of the Purity party and those Homo Sapiens who harmed Transhumans during the 2020s, are after a subjectively 50 years long cyberspace time accelerated legal trial put into a cybernetic Matrix-esqe 'home confinement' 'prison' for the rest of their lives. With no subjective time acceleration. Most will die of old age by the year 2090. *Post-singularity technology is used to resurrect dying economies. 2055 *Human civilization has united the planet under a digital democracy. Only two billion humans remain unwilling to ascend. A network of reservations are created for the remaining humans across the globe. 2075 *95% of humans belong to Homo Novus at this time. 2100 *Homo Sapiens dies out. Homo Novus is now the only species of human on the planet. 2125 *The Marshal Program is launched. The first Avatar Sapiens are "born". 2210 *Avatar Sapiens becomes the dominant species of human on Earth and its space colonies. *Other intelligent life-forms create their own Avatars. Category:Homo Novus Category:Scenario Category:Evolution